28 July 2014

Wow, was this week just crappy. Ebola, again. Russia. Again. Gaza. Again. Even "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" couldn't take it so they brought in a drag queen and asked questions about happy topics. Felt like a good time to revive the BLC (semi-)regular feature of missed items in the news with an eye for something good.

1. As reported in the NY Times and elsewhere, some religious leaders and churchgoers are working to take care of the young migrant children who have come to the US to escape the poverty (Guatemalan) and violence of their (Salvadoran and Nicaraguan) homelands in Central America. And one thing that is interesting here is that two groups who tend to lean to the political right in this country - Catholic bishops and Baptists - are in the mix along with Quakers, progressive Jewish leaders, and Unitarian Universalists, among others. Sure, you could be cynical and say that Catholic bishops are looking around at the hands that feed them, are seeing fewer (and fewer that are white), and are deciding to play the long game in enlightened self interest. No matter. Anyone who is stepping up and saying "These are children. We are Americans. They absolutely deserve compassion and love and support and we should know better and do better," is doing the right thing. (Want to help? Consider giving to these non-profits: Young Center for Immigrant's Children's Rights; Kids in Need of Defense. Want to learn more about what's going behind the immigration? Mother Jones has a good piece here.)

2. Yeah, we're not doing a lot about global climate change - but how does one coal plant taking the equivalent of 250,000 cars off the road sound? The Boundary Dam power station in Saskatchewan is going to do just that, through its carbon capture retrofit. And so is a plant in Mississippi, of all places. Should we still be strip mining coal? Of course not. But until we get renewables to the point where they can even think about replacing fossil fuels, these are great next steps.

3. Speaking of climate change, there were some big wins for transit recently. The Washington DC Metro began service on the Silver Line to Northern Virginia. Yes the 15-mile long track took nearly $3 billion and 6 years, but it's up and running, and will extend out to Dulles by 2018. And in north Texas, the DART rail system has been extended to DFW Airport - the world's third busiest - with service beginning next month.

4. And another athlete has come out as an ally for queer folk - in an awesome way. As reported in Outsports, for his weigh-in at his last fight MMA competitor Kyle Kingsbury stripped down to reveal pink undies with a pro-marriage-equality message. I know nothing about the guy, but c'mon, that's kinda bad ass in its own way.

And that's all I got. Really, I tried. I checked online sources from Japan, Australia, Singapore, Canada, France, and South Africa to find some good news, and that's all I could find. Hunker down, and here's hoping next week is better.
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